Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa-Area Students Visit Dairy Farms

By Matthew Wilde, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Nov. 4–CALMAR — Jessica Tharp felt like a human pacifier and she loved it.

The third-grader at West Cedar Elementary in Waverly has touched a calf before, but never like this. Walking through the new calf barn during a field trip to the Northeast Iowa Community-Based Dairy Foundation Dairy Center just south of Calmar, the 8-year-old nervously offered her thumb to Tequila.

The 2-month-old Holstein heifer latched on. Even as slobber ran down her hand, Tharp had no intentions of pulling back.

“It feels really funny. Her tongue is really rough,” Tharp said as Tequilla sucked, not getting the result she wanted. Finally, both gave up.

“She thought I was her mommy,” Tharp said. For a few minutes on Oct. 20 she was. Tharp lovingly stroked the calf’s neck and petted her behind her ears.

“My dog will be jealous,” she said.

Almost 90 third- and fifth-grade students from the Waverly-Shell Rock and Western Dubuque school districts got personally acquainted with Iowa’s dairy industry — interacting with animals, watching cows being milked, learning about its past and how it benefits the state today.

The Iowa Dairy Story program promotes the industry and understanding among non-farm audiences. Created four years ago by the Foundation, Iowa State University Extension and Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, about 950 students throughout Northeast Iowa participate each year.

“People are further and further removed from production agriculture, but they (kids) are the key to dairying’s future,” said Mark Hotvedt, Foundation director. “They will be our neighbors and future lawmakers that will have influence over the industry. And, they’re customers.”

Removed from agriculture is right. In Debbie Holst’s third-grade class from West Cedar, only one two out of 17 students live on a farm. Neither one is a dairy operation.

That’s a dramatic change from when Holst was in school. The 1990 graduate from Lowden High School said she was very much in the minority by growing up in town.

“This gives students some background of what farm life is about. Maybe even a better appreciation for the food products they enjoy,” Holst said.

Third, fourth and fifth grade students are targeted because of their age group. They’re old enough to retain information, but young enough to want to learn.

“It’s fun for them. High school kids might think it’s hokey, but they’re willing to learn,” Hotvedt said.

Making learning fun is one of the reasons the Iowa Dairy Story is so successful, Holst said. She’s astonished by the amount of material presented in a few hours and how much the students retain.

That’s why the district keeps finding the cash — often using grants — to pay for the trips year after year as budgets get tighter.

Students attend eight 20- to 30-minute sessions covering a cow’s digestive system, dairy nutrition, dairy history, dairy breeds, ice cream making, two barn tours and a milk cart quiz.

Ken Reimer, a retired veterinarian from Elkader and program volunteer, tackles the digestive system. He explains why a cow’s stomach has four parts and the purpose of each one. Much different from what some students thought, with some believing a cow had four or eight separate stomachs.

By learning what a cow eats and how the feed is converted into energy, that will give children a better understanding of how one productive Holstein can produce 12 gallons of milk a day.

Reimer uses a life-size plaster cow with the diagram of the stomach painted on, along with group participation and props to get his point across. For example, he makes a student chew a piece of gum 50 times without stopping. That’s how many times a cow chews her food to digest it, literally grinding her own feed.

“The entire day is taught at their level,” Holst said.

Mary Steen’s area of expertise is nutrition. The Northeast Iowa Community College employee told the students that 50 percent of a person’s bone structure develops between the ages of 9 and 14.

W-SR’s third-graders are just entering that phase. It’s recommended kids of that age consume 4 1/4 servings of dairy products a day. A serving equals an 8-ounce glass of milk or dairy equivalent. Dairy products containing calcium helps bones grow and become strong.

“These kids are right in the key part when eating dairy products are so important,” Steen said. NICC partners with the Foundation using the Dairy Center as an educational tool.

Steen said nationwide seven out of 10 boys don’t get enough calcium and nine out of 10 girls. She gave students and teachers a test to see if they’re a candidate for osteoporosis, a bone disorder characterized by a reduction of bone density. The results weren’t good.

“Now I know how much milk I have to drink,” said Morgan Brus, 8, of Waverly. “I have to do it, but I don’t always want to.”

Eight-year-old Jack Behrens thought there were 50 different breeds of dairy cows before the field trip. He learned there are only seven.

Behrens also discovered there were 21 million cows in the United States in 1925, compared to a little more than 9 million in 2003. However, improved technology and breeding has allowed today’s herd to outproduce the one 80 years ago.

Bremer County was the dairy leader in Iowa in 1925 with 27,188 cows. Now it’s 12th, with 4,600, according to the latest figures.

“It’s weird that not many cows make all the milk that you see in the store,” Behrens said.

More than 4,500 kids have a better understanding of the dairy industry than before because of the program, Hotvedt said. Interested schools can inquire about a field trip by calling him at (563) 534-9957, ext. 107.

“We often hear from teachers and students that its the best field trip they ever had,” Hotvedt said.

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